SpectralFantasy
by Elanchana
Summary: Assisted by a mysterious Specter, Chloe Maria Davis makes her musical debut at the MAC. Her triumph soon turns into a strange experience of romance, disaster, and dangerous choices. Based on The Phantom of the Opera.
1. Prologue, Moving In

_**SpectralFantasy**_

A fan-fiction

Based on _The Phantom of the Opera_

_Prologue_

I didn't know who to love.

Even now I'm not sure if I made the right choice.

At that time, there was not only love.

There was…

…_music_.

_Chapter One: Moving In_

"Well, this is our room, I guess," said Megan Gray as she set her bag down on the ledge of the mirror. "Ah, the privileges of being dance captains. We get our own dressing room, instead of having to change in the same room as those…preps."

I felt uneasy. "I kind of wanted a dressing room to myself," I told her.

"Chloe!" Megan looked at me like I was crazy. "Where did you ever get an idea like that? In our past three years here, the dance captains have shared a room! Mr. Director can't just decide that you're more important than any of the past dance captains."

"I know…" As long as we've known, the Donum High School musicals have been done at the Musical Arts Center, or MAC. Megan and I were in the dance troupe since we were freshmen, and now, being seniors, we were chosen by the dance troupe director, Megan's mother, to become dance captains. I always enjoyed being in the dance troupe, because, no matter what, we were always in the musicals. I knew I had no chance at the lead; Celita Malvagita always got that. Everyone that I knew disliked Celita. She smoked, she was snobby, she was melodramatic, and she never followed any rules. But she always got what she wanted.

Fifteen minutes later, when we were settled in enough, the director called us to the stage to start tech rehearsals.

"Alright!" said the director. He was a little man with a loud voice, the perfect choice for the stage director of a theater production.

"Let's get this rehearsal started! Are you ready up there with the lights?"

A faint "yes" came from the lighting booth.

"I want a spotlight on – Mario, will you get up to the roof?" said the director. Mario, Celita's brother, obliged. His first position was on the roof of a building. He climbed a ladder to the top of a piece of cardboard representing it.

"Yes," said the director. "I want the spotlight on Mario up there. The rest of the scene should be dark. Oh, and at the beginning of the scene, start it out small and faint, then get bigger and brighter. Could I see that?"

The stage darkened. A faint spot of light shone on Mario's face. Then it got bigger and brighter until the spotlight was at full size and brightness. The rehearsal pianist played the introduction and Mario began to sing. Suddenly, we heard the director's voice saying, "Could you stop for a moment, Mario?

He stopped. Everyone was wondering what was happening when the director called me to the audience seat where he was sitting.

"Yes, Mr. Director?" I said, worried.

"Uh, Chloe," he said quietly, "Mrs. Gray has just checked her voice mail and there's something you should hear." He pressed a few buttons and held Megan's mother's phone to my ear. A man's voice spoke.

"You must give Chloe Maria Davis her own dressing room," the voice said. "It is necessary for her well-being."

It sounded vaguely familiar.

"Mr. Director, I swear this isn't my doing," I said to the director.

"I never said it was," he told me. "But do you think we should do this?"

I thought for a moment. I did want my own room… I said yes.

My new dressing room was smaller than the one that I might have shared with Megan, but it would do. There was a circular mirror on one wall, with a ledge under it. A stool sat in one corner, and a small table was in another corner. A closet was by the door, with about five hangers in it.

I was looking around, when a voice, the same voice I heard in the message, whispered:

"At last…I have you alone."


	2. Unexpected Debut

_Chapter Two: Unexpected Debut_

I had a Spirit of Music!

My parents often told me that I have the Spirit of Music itself it me. Well, how could I doubt that now when a spirit's voice was in my own room, giving me secret voice lessons every day? When break time came, I went straight into my dressing room, just to hear his voice again. He was teaching me Celita's part, guaranteeing that it will be for the best.

This actually wasn't the first time I had heard the voice. In the dancers' room, I often was by myself and sang a little, and he sang with me. I didn't know it then, but that was my Spirit of Music!

The voice had no exact location, but it seemed to be associated with the mirror on the wall.

The day of the final dress rehearsal finally arrived. We were rehearsing the grand finale of the musical. Celita and Mario were singing a duet, with the supporting cast acting as the chorus and us dancing in the background. The music reached its second-to-last chord…

…and the lights went out.

We tried to keep rehearsing, but it was no good. Dancers and cast members kept bumping into each other, and the orchestra stopped because they couldn't see the conductor or their own music.

I heard a faint beep and saw a small flicker of light where the director was sitting before the lights came back on again.

The director ran to the stage to help get things back in order. Celita grabbed him by the arm.

"You arranged this whole thing, didn't you?" she scowled.

"N-n-no, C-Celita, I d-didn't arrange this," stammered the director. Talking to Celita Malvagita was like talking to a cruel queen.

"My grand finale! The pride of the play! You wanted it removed!"

"No, Celita…I swear…"

"Well, I am NOT going to put up with this kind of thing!" she shouted. "I am OUT OF HERE! Find your own female star!" She stormed out without another word.

"Chloe?" said a voice behind me. I turned around. Mrs. Gray was there.

"Do you want to tell him?" she asked. I had already told her about my secret Spirit of Music. I don't know exactly what made me tell it to her and no one else, but she seemed to understand what I had heard without me having to explain endlessly to her. I confided in her. I told her all my secrets of what happened in my dressing room.

"No, you tell him. I don't feel like I can," I said to her.

She nodded just in time to see the director walking out to the middle of the stage to make an announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, "I have no idea what happened today and I have no idea why. The lights went out and that's all I know about it. But since we have lost our leading female player, and there is no understudy, I am afraid we will have to –"

"Mr. Director?" interrupted Mrs. Gray.

Everyone looked at her. "Yes?" said the director.

"Miss Chloe Davis knows all of Celita's part and would be happy to perform in her place," Mrs. Gray announced.

There was a gasp of astonishment from all the cast as I walked forward.

"A dancer?" the director inquired. "How can a simple dancer take the place of a girl who has performed the lead in every musical since she came to Donum High?"

"Mr. Director, I know I can do this," I said to him.

"Grant her an audition," said Mrs. Gray. "At least do that for her and you will find she is ready."

After a moment of hesitation, the director agreed, but I heard him mumbling to himself that this wasn't going to work. He signaled to the orchestra as he walked off the stage into the audience. They started playing…the lead female character's signature song.

As I looked out into the almost empty theater, I heard the Spirit of Music's voice in my head…

I started to sing...

I can't tell how long my first performance lasted. Whether it was ten hours or two minutes I still am not sure, for I only knew I was playing a part no one ever dreamed of playing, that I was singing songs that were reserved for the higher class. At last, I had my wildest dream placed right there before me. My musical debut had arrived, unexpectedly.

I have to say it was all thanks to my own Spirit of Music.


End file.
